Monday, November 5, 2007

Printakid's Personalized Books for Children

When I think about the keepsakes that I really treasure from my childhood, the two personalized children's books that my parents bought me come close to the top of my list. To this day, I still like to take a peek at them from time to time and read the fantasy stories that were written just for me.

So I was really excited to get a chance to review Printakid's personalized books for children. Unlike other personalized children's books I had purchased, this one was unique in that they actually design the main character to look just like your child.

In the words of the founder:

A few years ago I was looking for an educational gift to give my goddaughter. I wanted to find a book with a hero that looked like her, with her darker skin, beautiful long brown hair and big brown eyes (her mom is Haitian and her dad is French). I couldn't find any story that really represented her and her family. I realized that there are very few books that represent minorities or children with different names or with different family structures.

After personalizing my own book, I can tell that the founders worked hard to provide enough choices of physical characteristics that you really do get a caricature that resembles your child. And what child doesn't want to read about book with a character that not only bears his name, but also looks just like him!

The way it works is that you go online to their site and answer a set of questions that help you easily personalize the book. You enter information such as your child's name, birthdate, reading level, gender, skin tone, hair color and hair type (e.g., curly, straight, long, short), eye color and eye shape. You can even tell them whether your child wears glasses! What results is a cartoon caricature that looks amazingly similar to your child. You also get to include names of family members and friends, who become characters in the story.

I've read this book to my son over and over and he loves it. He calls it the "Tito book." (Tito is his nickname.)

There are several stories to choose from. We chose "A Fantastic Birthday," which is great as a birthday present. Now with the holidays coming up, I have my eye on the story called "A Wacky Christmas Journey." After all, you can't have too many personalized children's books in my opinion!